Chapter 2 – Dream comes true

“Lord, this lowly one just saw the servants of Jingting Hou Fu outside the door.”

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    “What do they want to do?” Count Zhong Ping’s head started aching as soon as he heard the words “Jing Ting hou”.
The thing he regretted the most in his life was that he had lost his mind momentarily and set a betrothal with the Jingting Hou Mansion.
Now, people from the Jingting Hou Mansion came to his household to make trouble everyday.
If it were some other household, they wouldn’t make a fuss openly in order to save face.
But the people in the Jingting Hou’s Household were not like this.
Ban Huai, the Jingting Marquis, was jobless enough to oppose him at every turn and his son too would make trouble with Qilin from time to time.
Sometimes he even beat up Qilin, which was really humiliating.

    “This lowly one doesn’t know,” the servant, who had come to report, shook his head blankly.
“He’s just squatting down outside the door of our house, doing nothing.”

    “That entire household has brain problems from the master down to the servants” Count Zhong Ping said angrily, “Afterwards, will they still dare to beat people at our doorstep?”

   The little servant thought quietly to himself, didn’t Jingting Hou bring a group of manservants to smash their gate a few  years ago? Afterwards, the matter went to His Majesty.
As a result, because Jingting Hou had a mother who was the eldest princess, he was released after a few reprimands by His Majesty which didn’t even cause them to hurt or itch.
This aggravation caused their Count to fall ill and he couldn’t get out of bed for most of the month.

    In Count Zhong Ping’s view, the Jing Ting hou family  is like a rare flower that can’t be seen in a hundred years in the entire capital.
They are absurd and willful and utterly shameless.
The father and son are all the same.
Relying on their relationship with the royal family, they create a ruckus all day long and spend their days idly.
In all the decades he had lived, he had never before seen such a brazen father and son pair.

    With a father and brother like this, how could the daughter be any better? A ridiculous family!

    While Count Zhongping was scolding Jingting and his son, the housekeeper hurried in.

    “Lord! Something bad has happened!”

    That day, the ladies in the capital got  a new topic to gossip about.
Namely, that the second son of Count Zhongping somehow fell down while riding on horseback, hit his eye on a stone and blinded himself in one eye.
Instead of breaking his arms or legs, he had lost an eye.
What kind of luck could you call this?

    Some busybody suddenly remembered that this good man had been engaged to the Xiangjun of Jingting Hou a few years ago.
Later, although the marriage fell through, it could be considered that there was a period of time when they had a relationship.So, wasn’t it that Xiangjun’s cursed fate causing bad luck? Otherwise, how could an elite son known for his superb riding skills fall off his horse inexplicably?

    When a person gets an idea firmly stuck in their heads, they will eliminate any logical relationship in between and directly leap to a simple and rough conclusion.
Such as the idea that the Ban family’s Xiangjun has a fate that curses her life partner.

    Two years ago, the two people had ended their engagement and Zhongping Count’s Mansion was also ready to get Xie Qilin engaged to someone else now.
But now that something had happened to Xie Qilin, some people still put the matter on the head of Ban Xiangjun.

    “I’m infuriated! I’m about to die from anger!” Ban Heng who had just come back from the outside paced angrily around the house in circles, “These people are speaking such rubbish! What does it have to do with my sister if that Black hearted Xie fell and blinded his eye? It’s not My sister who pushed him down.
What is this talk of a husband? He is not my sister ’s husband.
It’s really shameless.
“

    ” Those people are stupid,” Ban Hua , wearing a complicated skirt and a tastefully chosen palace flower hairpin on her head, walked into her brother’s yard surrounded by her maidservants.
“They don’t care about the truth.
They just want something to gossip about.
Getting angry at what such stupid people say is completely in vain.”

    “For who am I angry? “Ban Heng sat down on the chair, waving away the waiting servants in the room.
He gulped and said ” Your dream … came true.
“

    Ban Hua sat down next to him.
Resting her chin on one hand, she sighed: “Five years later, you will no longer be a respected Marquis’ heir .”

    “Then you won’t be a Xiangjun anymore either,” Ban Heng quickly glanced at the gold and silver ornaments on his sister’s body, “So you tell me, what should we do now?? “The two siblings both looked at each other with blank faces.

“Good daughter,” Ban Huai walked in with sweat on his face, holding a lot of scrolls in his hand.
“Take a look at these portraits and see who could be that person?”

All four members of the Ban family understood what person he was referring to, but they dared not say it out loud.

    “This is a portrait of the Right Prime Minister named Shi Chonghai.” Ban Huai opened the scroll and pointed to a portrait of a thin old man on top “This man came from humble beginnings and looks very loyal to His Majesty.
But we can’t judge by appearances.
Is it possible that it’s him?”

    “It’s not this old man,” Ban Hua took a glance and immediately shook her head.
“That person is not so ugly.”

    “You couldn’t remember his appearance in your dreams,” Ban Heng asked curiously, “Then how do you know that he’s good looking? “

    “That’s women’s intuition.
You men will never understand, “Ban Hua raised her eyelids,” Next.
“

    ” This is a portrait of the Left Prime Minister named Yan Hui who often opposes his majesty.
“

    ” No “

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    ” Imperial Minister Zhou Bingan? “

    ” Not him either.
“

    “The Supervisor of the Ministry of War? “

    After looking at most of the portraits on the scrolls, Ban Hua only had one movement from beginning to end.
That was, constantly shaking her head.

    “These are most of the powerful imperial officials,” Ban Huai looked at the scrolls strewn around the room with a distressed expression on his face.
“The only ones remaining are the princes and noblemen of the Imperial clan.
But they are all of the Jiang family’s bloodline and it can’t be them.
Then, who could it be? “

    Ban Hua opened a scroll with a portrait of an exceptionally elegant young man wearing a jade crown and a robe.

    “Wrong, wrong.” Ban Huai grabbed the scroll in her hand.
“This is a portrait of an eligible bachelor from elsewhere.
It must have gotten accidentally mixed in.”

    “Father, don’t think about matching me with this kind of person,” Ban Hua calmly allowed Ban Huai to grab the painting in her hands, “How many women do you think would have their eyes on someone like him in all of Beijing? It would be terrible to have such a husband.” 

“Isn’t this good for a reference?” Ban Huai smiled, “Don’t you like good-looking men? This one must definitely meet your standards.
“

 “No matter how good-looking a man is, he can’t move my heart anymore when I think of the hard and difficult life we will have in five years,” Ban Hua lay on the table with a wan look on her face.
“Anyway, in the dream, I hadn’t gotten married after 5 years “

    Ban Heng patted her back in a distressed manner,” Sister, you should set up a villa and raise a few male pets.
Life is short.
You must live happily while you can.
“

    Anyway, there were a lot of Royal Princesses (gōngzhǔ) and County Masters (xiàn zhǔ) who raised male pets.

    Ban Hua ignored him.
There were indeed many good-looking men in the world, but there were very few men with both good looks and temperament.
Such people were generally of high status and even if they had no status, they would be taken away by the Royal Princesses.
How could it be her turn to choose?

    Seeing that Ban Hua was not interested, Ban Heng decided to talk about Xie Qilin ’s unlucky things to make her happy.
“I heard that when that Black hearted Xie was carried home, he had blood smeared across half of his face.
That scene was simply… tsk tsk tsk.
This is a fitting end for that kind of heartless rat.
“

    “His eye was blinded and his appearance must have also been affected.
It’s a pity, ” Ban Hua sighed as her slender white fingers tapped the table.” But he really fell well! “

    “I’ve been fed up with this mental case for a long time.
First, he ran away with a woman from the red light area.
Then, after he was brought back, every time he sees me he puts on a nauseating look like I wronged him to marry me.
If his face is so big, why doesn’t he marry a Royal Princess? ”

    “ Because he does n’t have enough status, ”Ban Heng professionally dismantled his sister ’s words.“ Although his family has a knighthood, their origins are still humble.
How can a Royal Princess look at him? “

    ” This kind of man whom the royal family disdains, turned his back on me and broke the engagement for the sake of a woman from the red light area.
Is this kind of thing something to be proud of? “Ban Hua rolled her eyes at Ban Heng in an unhappy mood, “Forget it.
Anyway, sooner or later the new emperor will take away our titles.
For now, we should eat and drink our fill and then think of ways to secretly buy some properties little by little.
Lets enjoy the good times while it lasts.
“

   They should just live in the moment and live in style for the next few years.
Anyway with their brains, they couldn’t think of any good solution.

    “You’re right,” Ban Huai nodded in agreement.
“Then, I’ll go buy the antique fan I saw last time.
Your mother refused to let me buy it then, but she shouldn’t say anything now.”

    Anyway, their family has so much money.
If they don’t use it now, they won’t have a chance to use it later when it is all confiscated.

    Sure enough, Ban Huai went to ask Yin shi for money again, and Yin shi gave it to him without hesitation.
She gave him two thousand silver banknotes and asked him to look for and buy rare things that their daughter would like.

    People in the capital suddenly discovered that Jingting Hou had recently opened his pockets.
What if it were rare antiques and things worth tens of thousands of silver? Jingting Hou bought it without blinking.
As everyone knew, Jingting hou was a wastrel.
The only thing he was afraid of were two women, one was his mother, Princess Dening, and the other is his wife, Yin shi.
The silver banknotes that he usually carries with him never exceeded five hundred in number.

    Now that he had suddenly become so generous and open handed in spending, one couldn’t help but wonder if there was a problem in the relationship between Jingting Hou and Yin shi.
Was Yin shi no longer able to control him?

    A few days later, Royal Princess Anle arranged for a chrysanthemum feast and invited many of the noble ladies in the capital.
Ban Hua, as the Eldest Princess Dening’s granddaughter, was naturally invited.

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    Ban Hua had always loved lively occasions, because only in such a setting could her beautiful Huafu robes and ornaments be flaunted in front of more people.
Furthermore, she also had an extremely beautiful face that was the envy of many women causing them to scold her behind her back in jealousy that she looked gaudy and vulgar, that she was just a brainless beauty, an idiot with no culture and so on.

    Ban Hua accepted these words with equanimity.
Because, although these women look down on her gorgeous dress and hold her in contempt for being gorgeous and brainless, they can’t hide the envy and jealousy in their eyes.

    She just likes that these people try to hide their obvious jealousy by pretending to look down on her.

    As long as she thought of those eyes full of envy, jealousy and hatred, she could eat an extra bowl of rice.

    “If one wants to show off in front of women, it’s not that the heavier the gold, the better.
Rather, the more delicate the ornament is, the more valuable.
If I can casually wear things that other women treat as treasures to be hidden at the bottom of their treasure boxes and begrudgingly brought out for special occasions and treat them as mere trifles, that is the real show off,” Ban Hua looked several times at the mirror in satisfaction as a gorgeous peony was painted on her forehead and said to the girl behind her, “It seems that this kind of flower suits me best.”

    Flowers such as plum blossoms and green lotus were popular nowadays.
While the peach blossom, peony and the like were often laughed at as inelegant by noble ladies.
But she, Ban Hua, was just such an inelegant person.

    How good was the peony which looked both noble and beautiful? Can that insipid plum blossom even be compared to it?

Ban Hua may seem narcissistic and vain in these few chapters but don’t judge her too quickly.
She’s one of my favourite characters from this author’s work.
Her character development is slow but it’s going to be a fun ride!

 

Also, I’ve been using some terms such as Houfu and Xiangjun instead of their English translations because I felt like literal English translations sounded awkward.
If you’d like me to change this, leave a comment!

If you’d like to support this book and the author, here’s a link to the original Chinese version.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 2 – Dream comes true

“Lord, this lowly one just saw the servants of Jingting Hou Fu outside the door.”

    “What do they want to do?” Count Zhong Ping’s head started aching as soon as he heard the words “Jing Ting hou”.
The thing he regretted the most in his life was that he had lost his mind momentarily and set a betrothal with the Jingting Hou Mansion.
Now, people from the Jingting Hou Mansion came to his household to make trouble everyday.
If it were some other household, they wouldn’t make a fuss openly in order to save face.
But the people in the Jingting Hou’s Household were not like this.
Ban Huai, the Jingting Marquis, was jobless enough to oppose him at every turn and his son too would make trouble with Qilin from time to time.
Sometimes he even beat up Qilin, which was really humiliating.

    “This lowly one doesn’t know,” the servant, who had come to report, shook his head blankly.
“He’s just squatting down outside the door of our house, doing nothing.”

    “That entire household has brain problems from the master down to the servants” Count Zhong Ping said angrily, “Afterwards, will they still dare to beat people at our doorstep?”

   The little servant thought quietly to himself, didn’t Jingting Hou bring a group of manservants to smash their gate a few  years ago? Afterwards, the matter went to His Majesty.
As a result, because Jingting Hou had a mother who was the eldest princess, he was released after a few reprimands by His Majesty which didn’t even cause them to hurt or itch.
This aggravation caused their Count to fall ill and he couldn’t get out of bed for most of the month.

    In Count Zhong Ping’s view, the Jing Ting hou family  is like a rare flower that can’t be seen in a hundred years in the entire capital.
They are absurd and willful and utterly shameless.
The father and son are all the same.
Relying on their relationship with the royal family, they create a ruckus all day long and spend their days idly.
In all the decades he had lived, he had never before seen such a brazen father and son pair.

    With a father and brother like this, how could the daughter be any better? A ridiculous family!

    While Count Zhongping was scolding Jingting and his son, the housekeeper hurried in.

    “Lord! Something bad has happened!”

    That day, the ladies in the capital got  a new topic to gossip about.
Namely, that the second son of Count Zhongping somehow fell down while riding on horseback, hit his eye on a stone and blinded himself in one eye.
Instead of breaking his arms or legs, he had lost an eye.
What kind of luck could you call this?

    Some busybody suddenly remembered that this good man had been engaged to the Xiangjun of Jingting Hou a few years ago.
Later, although the marriage fell through, it could be considered that there was a period of time when they had a relationship.So, wasn’t it that Xiangjun’s cursed fate causing bad luck? Otherwise, how could an elite son known for his superb riding skills fall off his horse inexplicably?

    When a person gets an idea firmly stuck in their heads, they will eliminate any logical relationship in between and directly leap to a simple and rough conclusion.
Such as the idea that the Ban family’s Xiangjun has a fate that curses her life partner.

    Two years ago, the two people had ended their engagement and Zhongping Count’s Mansion was also ready to get Xie Qilin engaged to someone else now.
But now that something had happened to Xie Qilin, some people still put the matter on the head of Ban Xiangjun.

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    “I’m infuriated! I’m about to die from anger!” Ban Heng who had just come back from the outside paced angrily around the house in circles, “These people are speaking such rubbish! What does it have to do with my sister if that Black hearted Xie fell and blinded his eye? It’s not My sister who pushed him down.
What is this talk of a husband? He is not my sister ’s husband.
It’s really shameless.
“

    ” Those people are stupid,” Ban Hua , wearing a complicated skirt and a tastefully chosen palace flower hairpin on her head, walked into her brother’s yard surrounded by her maidservants.
“They don’t care about the truth.
They just want something to gossip about.
Getting angry at what such stupid people say is completely in vain.”

    “For who am I angry? “Ban Heng sat down on the chair, waving away the waiting servants in the room.
He gulped and said ” Your dream … came true.
“

    Ban Hua sat down next to him.
Resting her chin on one hand, she sighed: “Five years later, you will no longer be a respected Marquis’ heir .”

    “Then you won’t be a Xiangjun anymore either,” Ban Heng quickly glanced at the gold and silver ornaments on his sister’s body, “So you tell me, what should we do now?? “The two siblings both looked at each other with blank faces.

“Good daughter,” Ban Huai walked in with sweat on his face, holding a lot of scrolls in his hand.
“Take a look at these portraits and see who could be that person?”

All four members of the Ban family understood what person he was referring to, but they dared not say it out loud.

    “This is a portrait of the Right Prime Minister named Shi Chonghai.” Ban Huai opened the scroll and pointed to a portrait of a thin old man on top “This man came from humble beginnings and looks very loyal to His Majesty.
But we can’t judge by appearances.
Is it possible that it’s him?”

    “It’s not this old man,” Ban Hua took a glance and immediately shook her head.
“That person is not so ugly.”

    “You couldn’t remember his appearance in your dreams,” Ban Heng asked curiously, “Then how do you know that he’s good looking? “

    “That’s women’s intuition.
You men will never understand, “Ban Hua raised her eyelids,” Next.
“

    ” This is a portrait of the Left Prime Minister named Yan Hui who often opposes his majesty.
“

    ” No “

    ” Imperial Minister Zhou Bingan? “

    ” Not him either.
“

    “The Supervisor of the Ministry of War? “

    After looking at most of the portraits on the scrolls, Ban Hua only had one movement from beginning to end.
That was, constantly shaking her head.

    “These are most of the powerful imperial officials,” Ban Huai looked at the scrolls strewn around the room with a distressed expression on his face.
“The only ones remaining are the princes and noblemen of the Imperial clan.
But they are all of the Jiang family’s bloodline and it can’t be them.
Then, who could it be? “

    Ban Hua opened a scroll with a portrait of an exceptionally elegant young man wearing a jade crown and a robe.

    “Wrong, wrong.” Ban Huai grabbed the scroll in her hand.
“This is a portrait of an eligible bachelor from elsewhere.
It must have gotten accidentally mixed in.”

    “Father, don’t think about matching me with this kind of person,” Ban Hua calmly allowed Ban Huai to grab the painting in her hands, “How many women do you think would have their eyes on someone like him in all of Beijing? It would be terrible to have such a husband.” 

“Isn’t this good for a reference?” Ban Huai smiled, “Don’t you like good-looking men? This one must definitely meet your standards.
“

 “No matter how good-looking a man is, he can’t move my heart anymore when I think of the hard and difficult life we will have in five years,” Ban Hua lay on the table with a wan look on her face.
“Anyway, in the dream, I hadn’t gotten married after 5 years “

    Ban Heng patted her back in a distressed manner,” Sister, you should set up a villa and raise a few male pets.
Life is short.
You must live happily while you can.
“

    Anyway, there were a lot of Royal Princesses (gōngzhǔ) and County Masters (xiàn zhǔ) who raised male pets.

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    Ban Hua ignored him.
There were indeed many good-looking men in the world, but there were very few men with both good looks and temperament.
Such people were generally of high status and even if they had no status, they would be taken away by the Royal Princesses.
How could it be her turn to choose?

    Seeing that Ban Hua was not interested, Ban Heng decided to talk about Xie Qilin ’s unlucky things to make her happy.
“I heard that when that Black hearted Xie was carried home, he had blood smeared across half of his face.
That scene was simply… tsk tsk tsk.
This is a fitting end for that kind of heartless rat.
“

    “His eye was blinded and his appearance must have also been affected.
It’s a pity, ” Ban Hua sighed as her slender white fingers tapped the table.” But he really fell well! “

    “I’ve been fed up with this mental case for a long time.
First, he ran away with a woman from the red light area.
Then, after he was brought back, every time he sees me he puts on a nauseating look like I wronged him to marry me.
If his face is so big, why doesn’t he marry a Royal Princess? ”

    “ Because he does n’t have enough status, ”Ban Heng professionally dismantled his sister ’s words.“ Although his family has a knighthood, their origins are still humble.
How can a Royal Princess look at him? “

    ” This kind of man whom the royal family disdains, turned his back on me and broke the engagement for the sake of a woman from the red light area.
Is this kind of thing something to be proud of? “Ban Hua rolled her eyes at Ban Heng in an unhappy mood, “Forget it.
Anyway, sooner or later the new emperor will take away our titles.
For now, we should eat and drink our fill and then think of ways to secretly buy some properties little by little.
Lets enjoy the good times while it lasts.
“

   They should just live in the moment and live in style for the next few years.
Anyway with their brains, they couldn’t think of any good solution.

    “You’re right,” Ban Huai nodded in agreement.
“Then, I’ll go buy the antique fan I saw last time.
Your mother refused to let me buy it then, but she shouldn’t say anything now.”

    Anyway, their family has so much money.
If they don’t use it now, they won’t have a chance to use it later when it is all confiscated.

    Sure enough, Ban Huai went to ask Yin shi for money again, and Yin shi gave it to him without hesitation.
She gave him two thousand silver banknotes and asked him to look for and buy rare things that their daughter would like.

    People in the capital suddenly discovered that Jingting Hou had recently opened his pockets.
What if it were rare antiques and things worth tens of thousands of silver? Jingting Hou bought it without blinking.
As everyone knew, Jingting hou was a wastrel.
The only thing he was afraid of were two women, one was his mother, Princess Dening, and the other is his wife, Yin shi.
The silver banknotes that he usually carries with him never exceeded five hundred in number.

    Now that he had suddenly become so generous and open handed in spending, one couldn’t help but wonder if there was a problem in the relationship between Jingting Hou and Yin shi.
Was Yin shi no longer able to control him?

    A few days later, Royal Princess Anle arranged for a chrysanthemum feast and invited many of the noble ladies in the capital.
Ban Hua, as the Eldest Princess Dening’s granddaughter, was naturally invited.

    Ban Hua had always loved lively occasions, because only in such a setting could her beautiful Huafu robes and ornaments be flaunted in front of more people.
Furthermore, she also had an extremely beautiful face that was the envy of many women causing them to scold her behind her back in jealousy that she looked gaudy and vulgar, that she was just a brainless beauty, an idiot with no culture and so on.

    Ban Hua accepted these words with equanimity.
Because, although these women look down on her gorgeous dress and hold her in contempt for being gorgeous and brainless, they can’t hide the envy and jealousy in their eyes.

    She just likes that these people try to hide their obvious jealousy by pretending to look down on her.

    As long as she thought of those eyes full of envy, jealousy and hatred, she could eat an extra bowl of rice.

    “If one wants to show off in front of women, it’s not that the heavier the gold, the better.
Rather, the more delicate the ornament is, the more valuable.
If I can casually wear things that other women treat as treasures to be hidden at the bottom of their treasure boxes and begrudgingly brought out for special occasions and treat them as mere trifles, that is the real show off,” Ban Hua looked several times at the mirror in satisfaction as a gorgeous peony was painted on her forehead and said to the girl behind her, “It seems that this kind of flower suits me best.”

    Flowers such as plum blossoms and green lotus were popular nowadays.
While the peach blossom, peony and the like were often laughed at as inelegant by noble ladies.
But she, Ban Hua, was just such an inelegant person.

    How good was the peony which looked both noble and beautiful? Can that insipid plum blossom even be compared to it?

Ban Hua may seem narcissistic and vain in these few chapters but don’t judge her too quickly.
She’s one of my favourite characters from this author’s work.
Her character development is slow but it’s going to be a fun ride!

 

Also, I’ve been using some terms such as Houfu and Xiangjun instead of their English translations because I felt like literal English translations sounded awkward.
If you’d like me to change this, leave a comment!

If you’d like to support this book and the author, here’s a link to the original Chinese version.

Happy Reading!